Director solves waste problem

PUBLISHED: 13:50 26 July 2007 | UPDATED: 21:45 29 May 2010

RUBBISH could soon be processed in a £7million state-of-the-art recycling centre if plans by a director get the go ahead. Neil Bookless works for Dunmow-based Environmental Energy Company (EECO), which has developed a process for treating municipal wastes

RUBBISH could soon be processed in a £7million state-of-the-art recycling centre if plans by a director get the go ahead.

Neil Bookless works for Dunmow-based Environmental Energy Company (EECO), which has developed a process for treating municipal wastes at small-scale, close to where they are produced.

He said: "I have spent the last six years trying to solve our waste problems. Then in April/May I saw the Broadcast's article about Essex County Council's plans for a waste transfer station in Dunmow and it galvanised me into action."

He has now designed a small-scale recycling centre to process local rubbish, produced within a short distance of the plant. This would remove the need to bulk or transport rubbish, from one town to another."

Mr Bookless said recycling is easy when the materials are coming in clean and separated. The problem comes when tin cans, bottles and newspapers come in on masse.

Where this material would normally go to landfill or straight into an incinerator, as it is difficult to separate, in EECO's plant, this material would go through a process, producing recyclable materials that are clean, and can be extracted for reuse.

The decomposed materials could then be used as compost in people's gardens or sold.

The things that cannot be reused or recycled will be placed into a biomass boiler in the processing plant to produce electricity.

"I visualise the plant as a glass-walled structure so people can see what is happening inside," said Mr Bookless. "If it is built just off the sliproad from the A120 I want it to be architecturally interesting, an asset for the community."

He would design it with a sloping roof covered in grass to look more like a small hill than an industrial estate but said depending on the location he would also look at building it as an industrial unit."

Any heat produced in the process could be used to heat the new hotel planned for the area, he said.

This, he claims, would save 60 per cent in carbon dioxide emissions.

Mr Bookless has two banks interested in his venture and if "his figures add up" they would fund it and he could charge gate fees.

"When we have proved it is a viable proposal it could be rolled out nationally, even globally," he said.

Last week Mr Bookless held a meeting with Nicola Beech, Essex County Council's head of environmental services, to explain his ideas and said she seemed very receptive to the proposal.

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